Restaurant where we tend to go most often.

I think I can say that out of all the restaurants in Fort McMurray, The Pantry is the one where we have spent the most time over the years.

It is connected to the Merit Hotel, towards the end of Franklin(which, I forgot to mention, is the main street that runs the whole length of downtown Fort McMurray). At first we went here because Allison, a girl from New Glasgow worked there as a waitress, and we all fell in love with her, and it seemed like the only time we got to see her was when we went to the restaurant.

The Pantry hosted our  family brunches with John and Andrea MacLean over the years on Sundays. It was our time to catch up on all the week's news and have a great breakfast in a relaxed atmosphere. We never feel rushed when we go here. We use to go faithfully, but as the boys all grew older, and we all are so busy, we fell out of the habit. But when we do go, we always say we should do it more often.

Everyone always has a favourite spot, a place you feel comfortable, a place where you can sit over a leisurely coffee. And for us, this is our spot.

Saturday picture, and how is the purge going?

I have some creative pictures coming up in the next few days. Today I was suppose to go to Wal-Mart for a last minute birthday gift, and a new shower curtain. When I pulled into the parking lot with Shayleen, this is what we saw:

It may not look that bad to you, but for those who know me, they know I hate shopping. And I hate shopping even more in crowds. When this many vehicles(yes, mostly trucks) are in the parking lot, you know it's going to be insane in the aisles in this store. It's our only big box store in town, as the Zellers is now closed.

For those following who have never been here, just to the far right of this, there is a Canadian Tire, Staples and Royal Bank. To the left, is the new big Sobeys, the grocery store that I frequent the most. It is the largest grocery store in town, and I love the bigger aisles, that are not packed with stacked boxes or stagnant men. And I find that they have the best fish selection, and that always comes first for me when I am shopping...even when I don't buy fish. When a grocery store has good fish, it usually means that it has better meats and produce, at least that is what I have found over the years. The Safeway in Thickwood has Starbucks, so when I need a chai tea fix, I go there for my groceries, but they will be closing in the next few months, and reopening as a Save-On.

So for those who are joining me in the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, how is it going? I haven't been posting my progress because the after pictures are not that dramatic. But in the last three days, I have packed up three more bags.

Two bags of clothes to be donated, and one bag of toys that will also be donated. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, but it might get harder as time goes by. I will be following the tips on the website to keep motivated.

Friday picture!

So my Friday got a little away from me yesterday. I did take my picture, but my five year old confiscated the computer last night, and since hubby had a long day and homework for his course, I was trying to keep her happy and quiet. So here is yesterday's picture:

I will have to go back in the summer and take it again as it is much better when the colours are better. But doesn't every place look better during the warm weather?

There is a gazebo along one of the trails in Thickwood, not far from Shayleen's school which I showed you on the first day. This picture was taken from standing in that gazebo, and you are looking at the now 10 lanes of traffic that cross the Athabasca River. It connects the downtown area of Fort McMurray to what we call "up the hill", being Thickwood and Timberlea, and of course, all the sites that lay north of the city. The last two lanes, and the Franklin Tunnel just opened in early December. Those two lanes are to the far right, and when you take those lanes, you can get directly onto Franklin, or you can turn towards MacDonald Island, our huge sports/community complex. Those two large apartment complexes you see were originally built by Syncrude in the late 70's or early 80's to house their employees. Many still call them the Syncrude Towers. It is hard to believe that when we moved here just 7 short years ago, this is what the bridge area looked like:

Back then when there was an accident on the bridge, which was a common thing, traffic would halt to a standstill, and would stay that way for hours. Thank God for new infrastructure. Since all these lanes opened, the traffic situation has been much better. There are still some kinks to work out, but I will give kudos to Alberta Transportation for making the situation much better than it was...which is funny if you know me, because the way they tackled the traffic congestion often brought a rant from me. Here's to moving forward!

Home

For the four different homes that Tim and I have lived in over the years since we were married, I distinctly remember the very first time I saw each place. For our home on the Long Stretch Road, it was just land the first time I drove to see it. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I immediately pictured the boys running around the yard that we would clear. It was our find, and we fell in love. When we moved to Fort McMurray, there was so much anxiety on my part about, well, pretty much everything. Would the boys adjust, would I make friends, would we like it here, and would we find a home in our budget in a good neigbourhood.

I like telling the story of how we found our house. I had arrived in Fort McMurray during a boom in the housing market, and there was lots of pressure to find something fairly quickly, as all our stuff was in storage, and we were in temporary housing. Not an ideal situation with two young kids. Tim was out here working already, and in the middle of a shutdown when we arrived. So I had no help at home, and arrived to no help(from him) in Fort McMurray. I remember dragging the boys to see about 12 houses, and nothing seemed to fit. And then one rainy night the boys and I went to see a house in Dickinsfield, and once again as we walked to the car afterwards we all felt so disappointed. And I remember the next part so distinctly.  I turned on the windshield wipers, and pulled up to the stop sign, and looked across to this scene:

There was a man standing out in the rain, putting up a for sale sign on the lawn. On a whim, I pulled up in front of him, and asked what the asking price was for the house that looked inviting in the dark evening light. It was over our budget, but he asked if we wanted to come in to have a look. I hesitated for only a moment. As we came in, the open kitchen/living room concept that greeted us was exactly what I had been looking for, and by the time we were walking down the hall, the boys were whispering that they thought this was "our house".  And after convincing Tim, and getting the bank to approve, it did in fact become our house. And we still love it. So today, you get to see my house in Fort McMurray, our home.

And Mitchell posing, as we are running to get to cadets.

Always up for a challenge.

I have realized a few things about myself in the last few years, and it seems some of my friends think one of my traits is quite amusing. I like being busy. I am not one to sit still for too long, and it seems that the busier I am, the more I get done. If I have a day where I don't have too much to do, it seems to spiral into a day of getting almost next to nothing done. It's true, give me five things to do, and I will get seven things done. But if I only have two or three things to do, it seems to be a struggle. It's like that theory about things in motion, it seems once I am moving, I just keep going.

And with Lent, I will admit another thing. My Catholic habits have remained a constant, even when I am not aware of it. Fridays seem to bring fish, and I find I still find myself giving up a few of my favourite things during the 40 days leading up to Easter. Funnily enough this year I was thinking I wanted to do something really different to challenge myself this year, but I couldn't figure out what exactly to do. And as usual, instead of doing just one thing, I will be tackling a few.

My first is something to improve my household, and hopefully my whole family will reap the benefits. A new friend on Facebook, Marlene Fargey had posted a challenge on her wall that really caught my attention, it was called, "Forty Bags in Forty Days". And it is just like it sounds, the women running the challenge gives us cluttered moms some tips to help us tackle some of the piles of papers, stuffed closets and mounds of toys. Here is the link to the page, and join along with me and see what we can accomplish over the next few weeks. http://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/40-bags-in-40-days-2014/

And here is the results of my first day:

I tackled some of my kitchen cupboards, and the fridge, throwing out expired crackers, ziploc dishes that no longer had covers, and a few broken dishes that I have no idea why I was keeping them. And you know what? I got a little excited, and I am thinking that tomorrow I may hit up a closet.

I cannot seem to fit more writing into my day, and that is always a goal that I have, so I was trying to think of some other way to do it so that it would be fun. I will let you know how it goes. Tonight I set the timer and said I would blog for 5 minutes, and it has been 15, so if I can find fun ways to incorporate my writing into the day maybe it will get done. So to do that, I gave myself another challenge that I have been promising everyone for well over a year. And that is I am going to post random pictures of things, people and places around Fort McMurray!

The first picture is of Shayleen's school, the same ones that the boys attended when we first moved to Fort McMurray. This is Ecole St. Paul, located in Thickwood. The school where I first called all those seven years ago, and Linda LeBlanc answered the phone and sealed my decision that the boys would attend this school. Linda was from home, her Dad still lives out towards Mira I believe, and she still goes home every year. She is the secretary at our school, and she is like the epicentre of the complex, since she knows both the staff and the families that have children that attend St. Paul's. I also know that there are several people from the East Coast that work here. People that I have been so lucky to meet, like Amanda, who is a wonderful teacher from Cape Breton. I connected with her mom, Darlene through Facebook, and they are a wonderful example of how I get to stay connected with people from home, and people who live here, through this crazy writing habit I have.

And I have one other habit that a priest instilled in me many, many years ago. He said if we could all use Lent, whether we are Catholic or not to just try to do better for those 40 days, and help each other more through life....whether it was these 40 days, or any other 40 days in any given year, then the world would be a better place. I sometimes forget to practice that, but for the next 40 days I will once again commit to doing something a little extra special for the people in my life and my community. And if I get enough feedback, I was thinking maybe we could start a Facebook page so that we could all inspire and share what we could do. I know there are many groups that need volunteers, whether it be for an afternoon, or a day, and I was thinking we could share all those types of things on one page, and the rest of us could be inspired every day to just do that one extra thing, big or small. Let me know what you all think! And well, wasn't this all quite the ramble!

Fort McMurray Sunday News

When my column in the Cape Breton Post came to an end I promised that I would continue to share the Fort McMurray news here in this blog. I gave myself a little time to get use to all the changes in my life again the last few weeks, and I am finally ready to get back on track.

So I sat down this morning to make a schedule, and Sunday was usually the day that I wrote my Post column, so I thought why not continue the almost seven year habit, and write the Fort McMurray news on Sunday. So if you just want some news from our fair city, you can check out the blog on Sundays to get your fix. I have received so many emails from home about this, so if you have a parent at home in Cape Breton who use to read my column, please send them this link. And thanks to everyone who said that they would continue reading the news that I share from here because it makes them feel a bit more connected to their loved ones out here. I am doing this for all of you who have shared your wonderful stories with me over the years.

This was teacher's convention week, so the kids were off for the week, and of course, the weather was disgusting. Today it is sitting at -29. Many who work night shifts or outside a lot found themselves with some days off due to the extreme cold. I know many of the kids who had hoped to spend the week at the ski hill were greatly disappointed. Of course, the lucky ones escaped south for the week with the kids, with the flights to places like Mexico, and Hawaii filled to capacity this last week.

Around Fort McMurray it was kind of an odd news week.

This picture was the hot topic of conversation the last few days. The driver called into a local radio station to defend his driving skills, saying that he was cut off, clipped the car, and then ended up on top of two other vehicles in this parking lot. This spot really is crappy, the line up to Tim Horton's frequently spills out onto Thickwood Boulevard, and people get stuck behind them, and then pull back out into oncoming traffic. With a bad intersection right before this spot, and a school zone right below it, there really should be some kind of change made to make it safer. Signs have already been posted stating that people will be fined for blocking the Boulevard, and the drive-thru is now a double line, but still the coffee addicts don't follow the rules.

Not that I am defending this driver, I don't think he was driving the speed limit if he was able to land on two parked vehicles. But I could be wrong, and I hope I am wrong. I am sick of the drivers here, this parking lot is right outside where the public health office is located. Imagine if a woman had just come out with her baby when this happened. Instead of the jokes about the driver wanting to get his coffee, a much sadder outrage would be circling the community instead. I don't know what the answer is, but if really is scary some days to drive here. I hope that the municipality will continue to talk about different safety campaigns, and that the RCMP will continue to crack down on those who make our roads unsafe.

And to end on a personal note this week, our little Shayleen turned five on Thursday. All those who have read my column in the Post have been with us from the beginning with our little girl. It's so hard to believe that it has been 5 years since this little miracle blessed our lives. It was -50 with the windchill the night she was born, but my God, she warmed our hearts as soon as we saw her.

And look at her now!

My Weird Quirks

I know we all have our little "quirks", you know, the things that make us just a little bit different from all the rest. Don't we all have little conversations running in our head when we find ourselves in different situations? Please don't say no, I don't need to know that I am the only person that comes up with a list of 10 questions(in my head) that I could ask people who are serving me, nurses, cab drivers, snotty people in lines, and anyone else I come in contact with. No? Geez, maybe I shouldn't go on.

Especially in crowds, or busy environments, I play games in my head to make the time go by, make it more interesting, or I guess, honestly, just because I am weird. In crowds, or at parties, when someone is walking into the room, I try to guess who they will be going to sit or meet. In parking lots, I try to guess which car a person will go to. When I go to a restaurant with someone, I try to guess what everyone else will order. At Christmas parties, or company barbecues, I go up to the woman who I think looks the most well dressed, and tell her so(I have met some wonderful people doing that), and I will also introduce myself to total strangers to tell them they look like they are having so much fun, or they look in love, or if I am dying to find out their "story". The most memorable time I did this was at my Aunt Phil and Uncle Harry's wedding anniversary party. It was held in a hall in a town where I did not know many people, and there was a beautiful older couple that danced beautifully together all night. I finally had to ask several people who they were, and no one seemed to know, but my Aunt was very curious too. Turns out that they had only been together a few months, but danced in such perfect unison that it looked like they had been together a lifetime. She was 74, and he was 78, and they had just gotten married a few months earlier. She had been his first love, but he had gone off to work, and fell in love with another woman, and life happened. When he finally had returned to Cape Breton after 40 years, his love was still married to her husband, and so he waited. He said he knew that they should have been together, and that some day they would be together. It took almost 17 years of him waiting. After her husband died, he waited, and then turned up on her doorstep to ask her to a dance. And at 77 and 73, that was how they had finally found each other again. Some people have wonderful stories, and my Aunt and I were both moved by their story that night in that hall so many years ago. I was glad I asked, so maybe sometimes my little quirks are not so bad. Just don't ask my husband which quirks bother him most, I don't need to know that story.

One other quirk that I have is that on Fridays I set aside one hour every week and I travel. Since time and money do not allow, I do it all on my computer. I look at houses for sale in remote locations around the world, I price flights to South Africa, and I find a city that I have never heard of, and look at what the local attractions are to see. I price dream trips for myself, and for the family, and I even look at menus of expensive restaurants around the world. I have places that I want to visit in many cities if I am ever lucky enough to actually visit them.

And now you know some of my quirks, if you have a good quirk, please feel free to share it with me, because I love trying new ones when I can, it definitely makes life a bit more interesting.